Companies Have a Big Data Problem

As technology has changed so too has the way in which consumers engage with companies. No longer do consumers have to go to a physical store but instead can shop from the comfort of their own couch.

However, with all of the different channels for companies and consumers to engage with one another comes a rather unique problem: How do companies analyze all of the data that is being generated from these communications?

The survey reveals that of the 200 individuals studied 79 percent said their companies have an analytics team and spend more than $137,000 annually on the all-important data source. Eighty-three percent of those surveyed also said their companies are running big data platforms for a variety of reasons including marketing intelligence and customer relationship management.

One of the most interesting findings from the survey was that 83 percent of companies are struggling to link customer information across different channels. Considering that in today’s world businesses communicate with consumers over so many different channels (whether it be mobile, brick-and-mortar, desktop websites or email to name a few) it is vital they understand the consumers complete journey.

Another key statistic reported in the survey is that 94 percent of companies believe their customer and prospect data is inaccurate in some way or fashion. While mistakes are bound to happen at some point or another, for 94 percent of companies to believe their information is inaccurate is astounding.

The report states the main reason for these depressing statistics is poor data collection and linkage capabilities. Analytics platforms differ in what data they collect (social, operational, sales, etc.) which forces many companies to leverage more than one program or platform. While this allows companies to obtain as much data as possible it complicates the process because companies must make sure the two (or possibly more) platforms can communicate with one another. Otherwise, companies are left to sift through and analyze all the data themselves from each platform.

With the analytics market expected to only increase, it’s vital companies find a platform that provides them with all the necessary data they need or find platforms that can efficiently communicate with one another in order to provide them with the most comprehensive and accurate data as possible. For a list of dashboards to help companies calm their data woe's check out "The Best Data Visualization Dashboards" on Website Magazine.